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HISTORIC DOUBTS 



HEtATIVK TO 

NAPOLEON BUONAPARTE 



HISTORIC 



DOUBTS 



RELATIVE TO 



NAPOLEON BUONAPARTE. 



BY 



RICHARD WHATELY, D. D., 

U ■"■ 

Late Principal of Saint Alban's Hall, Fellow of Oriel College, Oxford j 
and Archbishop of Dublin. 



" Is, not the same reason available in theology and in politics ? . . 
WUl you follow truth but to a certain point ?" 

Vindication of J^Tatural Society, by a late JSToble Writer. 



PHILADELPHIA: 
AMERICAN SUNDAY-SCHOOL UNION, 

1844. 



DC203 
.\A/5Vi 



i 




PREFACE. 



The present edition of this ingenious and popular 
tract is issued by the American Sunday-school Unionf 
at the solicitation of some individuals, who desire it for 
gratuitous distribution in neighbourhoods where specu- 
lative infidelity is prevalent at the present time. 

It is proper to apprise the reader, (if he is not already 
aware of it,) that this tract was written many years 
S'gOj by a distinguished English divine, to expose the 
shallowness and inconclusiveness of some of the infidel 
Hume's arguments against Christianity. 

There was a time when it wa.s fashionable to profess 
to be a disciple of the skeptical philosopher. It seemed, 
to some, a sure mark of a strong and independent mind, 
to throw off" the restraints of early religious training, and 
to abandon the path which Newton and Locke, and 
Bacon and Milton, and Boyle and Hale travelled, 
that they might follow the steps of David Hume. The 
s,^ ^weakness of prophets and apostles and martyrs, was quite 
^' ian offence to such persons. The character of Paul and 

1* 



6 PREFACE. 

his compeers — nay, even the character of the Divine 
Founder of the Christian faith, presented no features 
which could command their admiration or even their 
attention; but they could turn scornfully away, and sit 
down at the feet of the infidel Hume, and eagerly em- 
brace the absurdities of his philosophy. 

It wjEis especially in his " Essay on Miracles," that 
Hume adopted a style of argument, which, however 
plausible to the unthinking and untaught, was in the 
highest degree fallacious and sophistical; so that if 
applied to other subjects than Christianity, and followed 
out to its legitimate and necessary conclusions, it would 
destroy the force of evidence, confound truth with error, 
and involve the most authentic histories in vague doubt 
and endless uncertainty. 

It was to expose this weakness of the vain philoso* 
pher's argument, that Archbishop Whately compiled 
the most ingenious and impressive tract which is now 
before us. He not only throws himself into the very 
frame of mind in which the infidel reasoner is supposed 
to be, in order to pursue such a train of sophistry ; but 
his style is so admirably feigned, that one can hardly 
realize it to be other than that of a sincere and 
honest inquirer for truth ! 

The grand purpose of the author is to show, that if 



PREFACE. 7 

the course of argument which Hume adopted in refer- 
ence to the miracles of Scripture, were applied to the 
history of Buonaparte, (or indeed any other modern 
general or distinguished statesman,) it would be a very 
easy thing to raise doubts whether any such person 
ever existed ; — nay, whether the successive accounts of 
his exploits and conquests, with dates, places and circum- 
stances, which were spread through all nations, and at 
one time occupied the anxious attention of the civilized 
world, were not, after all, the fictions of a lively fancy! 
It is perhaps unnecessary to add, that a work of this 
nature is not suitable for children. It is rather design- 
ed for the use of those whose minds may have been 
corrupted by the attempt of wicked men to turn them 
aside from the knowledge of the truth. 

As this work first appeared in the year 1819, many 
things are spoken of in the present tense to which the 
past would now be applicable. 

The Postscript was added to the third edition, which 
was published soon after the accounts of Buonaparte's 
death. 



HISTORIC DOUBTS 



RELATIVE TO 



NAPOLEON BUONAPARTE 



Long as the public attention has been oc- 
cupied by the extraordinary personage from 
whose ambition we are supposed to have so 
narrowly escaped, the subject seems to have 
lost scarcely any thing of its interest. We 
are still occupied in recounting the exploits, 
discussing the character, inquiring into the 
present situation, and even conjecturing as to 
the future prospects of Napoleon Buonaparte. 

Nor is this at all to be wondered at, if we 
consider the very extraordinary nature of 
those exploits, and of that character; their 
greatness and extensive importance, as well 
as the unexampled strangeness of the events, 
and also, that strong additional stimulant, the 
mysterious uncertainty that hangs over the 
character of the man. If it be doubtful wheth- 



10 HISTORIC DOUBTS RELATIVE TO 

er any history (exclusive of such as is avow- 
edly fabulous) ever attributed to its hero such 
a series of wonderful achievements compress- 
ed into so small a space of time, it is certain 
that to no one were ever assigned so many 
dissimilar characters. 

It is true indeed that party prejudices have 
drawn a favourable and an unfavourable por- 
trait, of almost every eminent man ; but amidst 
all the diversities of colouring, something of 
the same general outline is always distinguish- 
able. And even the virtues in the one descrip- 
tion, bear some resemblance to the vices of 
another ; rashness, for instance, will be called 
courage, or courage, rashness ; heroic firm- 
ness, and obstinate pride, will correspond in 
the two opposite descriptions; and in some 
leading features, both will agree. Neither 
the friends nor the enemies, of Phihp of Mace- 
don, or of Julius Cassar, ever questioned their 
COURAGE, or their military skill. 

With Buonaparte, however, it has been 
Otherwise. This obscure Corsican adventurer, 
a man, according to some, of extraordinary 
talents and courage, according to others, of 
very moderate abilities, and a rank coward, 
advanced rapidly in the French army, obtain- 
ed a high command, gained a series of impor- 



NAPOLEON BUONAPARTE. 11 

tant victories, and, elated by success, embark- 
ed in an expedition against Egypt ; which was 
planned and conducted, according to some, 
wdth the most consummate skill, according to 
others, with the utmost wildness and folly : he 
was unsuccessful however; and leaving the 
army of Egypt in a very distressed situation, 
he returned to France, and found the nation, 
or at least the army, so favourably disposed 
towards him, that he was enabled, with the 
utmost ease, to overthrow the existing govern- 
ment, and obtain for himself the supreme 
power ; at first under the modest appellation 
of Consul, but afterwards with the more sound- 
ing title of Emperor. While in possession of 
this power, he overthrew the most powerful 
coalitions of the other European States against 
him; and though driven from the sea by the 
British fleets, overran nearly the whole con- 
tinent, triumphant : finishing a war, not unfre- 
quently in a single campaign, he entered the 
capitals of most of the hostile potentates, de- 
posed and created kings at his pleasure, and 
appeared the virtual sovereign of the chief 
part of the continent, from the frontiers of 
Spain to those of Russia. Even those coun- 
tries we find him invading with prodigious 
armies, defeating their forces, penetrating to 



12 HISTORIC DOUBTS KELATIVE TO 

their capitals, and threatening their total sub- 
jugation. But at Moscow his progress is 
stopped: a winter of unusual severity, co- 
operating with the efforts of the Russians, to- 
tally destroys his enormous host; and the 
German sovereigns throw off the yoke, and 
combine to oppose him. He raises another 
vast army, which] is also ruined at Leipsic : 
and again another, with which, like a second 
Antseus, he for some time maintains himself 
in France ; but is finally defeated, deposed, 
and banished to the island of Elba, of which 
the sovereignty is conferred on him. Thence 
he returns, in about nine months, at the head 
of 600 men, to attempt the deposition of King 
Louis, who had been peaceably recalled ; the 
French nation declare in his favour, and he is 
reinstated without a struggle. He raises ano- 
ther great army to oppose the allied powers, 
which is totally defeated at Waterloo : he is a 
second time deposed, surrenders to the British, 
and is placed in confinement at the island of 
St. Helena. Such is the outline of the event- 
ful history presented to us ; in the detail of 
which, however, there is almost every con- 
ceivable variety of statement ; while the mo- 
tives and conduct of the chief actor are in- 
volved in still greater doubt, and the subject 
of still more eager controversy. 



NAPOLEON BUONAPARTE. 13 

In the midst of these controversies, the pre- 
liminary question, concerning the existence of 
this extraordinary personage, seems never to 
have occurred to any one as a matter of 
doubt ; and to show even the smallest hesita- 
tion in admitting it, would probably be regard 
ed as an excess of skepticism ; on the ground 
that this point has always been taken for 
granted by the disputants on all sides, being 
indeed implied by the very nature of their 
disputes. 

But is it in fact found that undisputed points 
are always such as have been the most care- 
fully examined as to the evidence on which 
they rest ? that facts or principles which are 
taken for granted, without controversy, as the 
common basis of opposite opinions, are always 
themselves established on sufficient grounds? 
On the contrary, is not any such fundamental 
point, from the very circumstance of its being 
taken for granted at once, and the attention 
drawn off to some other question, likely to be 
admitted on insufficient evidence, and the flaws 
in that evidence overlooked ? Experience will 
teach us that such instances often occur : wit- 
ness the well-known anecdote of the Royal 
Society; to whom king Charles II. proposed as 
a question, whence it is that a vessel of water 
2 



14 HISTOBIC DOUBTS RELATIVE TO 

receives no addition of weight from a live fish 
being put into it, though it does, if the fish be 
dead. Various solutions of great ingenuity 
were proposed, discussed, objected to, and 
defended ; nor was it till they had been long 
bewildered in the inquiry, that it occurred to 
them to try the experiment; by which they at 
once ascertained, that the phenomenon which 
they were striving to account for, — which was 
the acknowledged basis, and substratum, as it 
were, of their debates, — had no existence but 
in the invention of the witty monarch. 

Another instance of the same kind is so very 
remarkable, that I cannot forbear mentioning 
it. It was objected to the system of Coper- 
nicus when first brought forward, that if the 
earth turned on its axis as he represented, a 
stone dropped from the summit of a tower 
would not fall at the foot of it, but at a great 
distance to the west ; in the same manner as a 
stone dropped from the mast-head of a ship in 
full sail, does not fall at the foot of the mast, but 
towards the stern. To this it was answered, 
that a stone, being a part of the earth, obeys 
the same laws, and moves with it, whereas it 
is no part of the ship ; of which consequently 
its motion is independent. This solution was 
admitted by some, but opposed by others; and 



NAPOLEON BUONAPARTE. 15 

the controversy went on with spirit ; nor was 
it till one hundred years after the death of 
Copernicus, that the experiment being tried, 
it was ascertained that the stone thus dropped 
from the head of the mast, does fall at the foot 
of it!* 

Let it be observed, that I am not now im- 
pugning any one particular point ; but merely 
showing generally, that what is unquestioned is 
not necessarily unquestionable ; since men will 
often, at the very moment when they are ac- 
curately sifting the evidence of some disputed 
point, admit hastily, and on the most insuffi- 
cient grounds, what they have been accus- 
tomed to see taken for granted. 

The celebrated Humef has pointed out also 
the readiness with which men believe, on very 

;eafc £7tc -jfa fVotjua fiaJK^ov tpsriovtac. Thucyd. b. i. c. 20. 
[Thus many take no pains to find the truth, but prefer a 
sluggish acquiescence in whatever is presented to them.] 

f " With what greediness are the miraculous accounts 
of travellers received, their descriptions of sea and land 
monsters, their relations of wonderful adventures, strange 
men, and uncouth manners." Hume's Essay on Miracles^ 
p. 179, 12mo.; p. 185, 8vo. 1767; p. 117, Svo. 1817. 

N. B. In order to give every possible facility of refer- 
ence, three editions of Hume's Essays have been generally 
employed^ a 12mo. London, 1756, and two Svo. editions. 



16 HISTORIC DOUBTS RELATIVE TO 

slight evidence, any story that pleases their 
imagination by its admirable and marvellous 
character. Such hasty credulity, however, 
as he well remarks, is utterly unworthy of a 
philosophical mind; which should rather sus- 
pend its judgment the more, in proportion to 
the strangeness of the account ; and yield to 
none but the most decisive and unimpeachable 
proofs. 

Let it then be allowed us, as is surely rea- 
sonable, just to inquire, with respect to the 
extraordinary story I have been speaking of, 
on what evidence we believe it. We shall be 
told that it is notorious; i. e. in plain English, 
it is very much talked about. But as the gene- 
rality of those who talk about Buonaparte do 
not even pretend to speak from their own 
authority, but merely to repeat what they have 
casually heard, we cannot reckon them as in 
any degree witnesses ; but must allow ninety- 
nine hundreds of what we are told, to be mere 
hear-say, which would not be at all the more 
worthy of credit even if it were repeated by 
ten times as many more. As for those who 
profess to have personally known Napoleon 
Buonaparte, and to have themselves witnessed 
his transactions, I write not for them ; if any 
such there he, who are inwardly conscious of 



NAPOLEON BUONAPARTE. 17 

the truth of all they relate, I have nothing to 
say to them, but to beg that they will be tole- 
rant and charitable towards their neighbours, 
who have not the same means of ascertaining 
the truth ; and v»rho may well be excused for 
remaining doubtful about such extraordinary 
events, till most unanswerable proofs shall be 
adduced. 

Let us however endeavour to trace up some 
of this hear-say evidence as far towards its 
source as we are able. Most persons would 
refer to the newspapers as the authority from 
which their knowledge on the subject was 
derived : so that, generally speaking, we may 
say, it is on the testimony of the newspapers 
that men beheve in the existence and exploits 
of Napoleon Buonaparte. 

It is rather a remarkable circumstance, that 
it is common to hear Englishmen speak of the 
impudent fabrications of foreign newspapers, 
and express wonder that any one can be found 
to credit them ; while they conceive that, in 
this favoured land, the liberty of the press is a 
sufficient security for veracity. It is true they 
often speak contemptuously of such " newspa- 
per stories" as last but a short time; indeed 
they continually see them contradicted within 
a day or two in the same paper, or their falsity 
2* 



18 HISTORIC DOUBTS RELATIVE TO 

detected by some journal of an opposite party ; 
but still whatever is long adhered to and often 
repeated, especially if it also appear in several 
different papers, (and this, though they noto- 
riously copy from one another,) is almost sure 
to be generally believed. Whence this high 
respect which is practically paid to newspaper 
authority ? Do men think that because a wit- 
ness has been perpetually detected in falsehood, 
he may therefore be the more safely beheved 
whenever he is not detected? or does adhe- 
rence to a story, and frequent repetition of it, 
render it the more credible ? On the contrary, 
is it not a common remark in other cases, that 
a liar will generally stand to and reiterate what 
he has once said, merely because he has said it? 

Let us if possible divest ourselves of this 
superstitious veneration for every thing that 
appears " in print," and examine a little more 
systematically the evidence which is adduced. 

I suppose it will not be denied, that the three 
following are among the most important points 
to be ascertained, in deciding on the credibility 
of witnesses; first, whether they have the 
means of gaining correct information; second- 
ly, whether they have any interest in concealing 
truth, or propagating falsehood ; and, thirdly, 
whether they agree in their testimony. Let 



NAPOLEON BUONAPARTE- 19 

US examine the present witnesses upon all these 
points. 

First, what means have the editors of news- 
papers for gaining correct information? We 
know not, except from their own statements. 
Besides what is copied from other journals, 
foreign or British, (which is usually more than 
three-fourths of the news published,*) they pro- 
fess to refer to the authority of certain private 
correspondents abroad; w;^o these correspon- 
dents are, what means they have of obtaining 

* « Suppose a fact to be transmitted through twenty- 
persons; the first communicating it to the second, the 
second to the third, &c., and let the probability of each 
testimony be expressed by nine-tenths, (that is, suppose 
that of ten reports made by each witness, nine only are 
true,) then, at every time the story passes from one wit- 
ness to another, the evidence is reduced to nine-tenths of 
what it was before. Thus after it has passed through the 
whole twenty, the evidence will be found to be less than 
one-eighth." La Place. Essai Philosophique sur les Pro- 
babilites. 

That is, the chances for the fact thus attested being 
true, will be, according to this distinguished calculator, 
less than one in eight. Very few of the common news- 
paper stories, however, relating to foreign countries, 
could be traced, if the matter were carefully investigated, 
up to an actual eye-witness, even through twenty inter- 
mediate witnesses ; and many of the steps of our ladder 
would, I fear, prove but rotten ; few of the reporters 
would deserve to have one in ten fixed as the proportion 
of their false accounts. 



20 HISTORIC DOUBTS RELATIVE TO 

information, or whether they exist at all, we 
have no way of ascertaining. We find our- 
selves in the condition of the Hindoos, who are 
told by their priests, that the earth stands on 
an elephant, and the elephant on a tortoise; 
but are left to find out for themselves what the 
tortoise stands on, or whether it stands on any 
thing at all. 

So much for our clear knowledge of the 
means of information possessed by these wit- 
nesses ; next, for the grounds on which we are 
to calculate on their veracity. 

Have they not a manifest interest in circu- 
lating the wonderful accounts of Napoleon 
Buonaparte and his achievements, whether 
true or false? Few would read newspapers 
if they did not sometimes find wonderful or 
important news in them ; and we may safely 
say that no subject was ever found so inex- 
haustibly interesting as the present. 

It may be urged, however, that there are 
several adverse political parties, of which the 
various public prints are respectively the or- 
gans, and who w^ould not fail to expose each 
other's fabrications.*^ Doubtless they would, 

* *' I did not mention the difficulty of detecting- a false- 
hood in any private or even public history, at the time 
and place where it is said to happen ; much more where the 
scene is removed to ever so small a distance 



KAPOLEON BUONAPARTE. 21 

if they could do so without at the same time 
exposing their own; but identity of interests 
may induce a community of operations up to 
a certain point. And let it be observed, that 
the object of contention between these rival 
parties is, who shall have the administration of 
public affairs, the control of public expendi- 
ture, and the disposal of places ; the question, 
I say, is, not whether the people shall be 
governed or not, but by which party they shall 
be governed ;— not whether the taxes shall be 
paid or not, but who shall receive them. Now 
it must be admitted, that Buonaparte is a poli- 
tical bugbear, most convenient to any adminis- 
tration : " if you do not adopt our measures 
and reject those of our opponents, Buonaparte 
will be sure to prevail over you ; if you do not 
submit to the Government, at least under our 
administration, this formidable enemy will take 
advantage of your insubordination, to conquer 
and enslave you : pay your taxes cheerfully, 
or the tremendous Buonaparte will take all 
from you." Buonaparte, in short, was the 
burden of every song; his redoubted name 

But the matter never comes to any issue, if trusted to the 
common method of altercation and debate and flying- 
rumours."~^wme's Essay on Miracles, p. 195, 12mo.; 
p. 200, 201, 8vo. 1767; p. 127, 8vo. 1817. 



22 HISTORIC DOUBTS KELATIVE TO 

was the charm which always succeeded in 
unloosing the purse-strings of the nation. And 
let us not be too sure, safe as we now think 
ourselves, that some occasion may not occur 
for again producing on the stage so useful a 
personage ; it is not merely to naughty chil- 
dren in the nursery, that the threat of being 
" given to Buonaparte" has proved effectual. 

It is surely probable, therefore, that, with 
an object substantially the same, all parties 
may have availed themselves of one common 
instrument. It is not necessary to suppose 
that for this purpose they secretly entered into 
a formal agreement; though by the way, there 
are reports afloat, that the editors of the Cou- 
rier and Morning Chronicle hold amicable con- 
sultations as to the conduct of their public war- 
fare : I will not take upon me to say that this 
is incredible ; but, at any rate, it is not neces- 
sary for the establishment of the probability I 
contend for. Neither again would I imply that 
all newspaper-editors are utterers of forged 
stories " knowing them to be forged ;" most 
likely the great majority of them publish what 
they find in other papers, with the same simpli- 
city that their readers peruse it ; and therefore, 
it must be observed, are not at all more proper 
than their readers to be cited as authorities. 



NAPOLEON BUONAPARTE. 23 

Still it will be said, that unless we suppose 
a regularly preconcerted plan, we must at 
least expect to find great discrepancies in the 
accounts published. Though they might adopt 
the general outline of facts, one from another, 
they would have to fill up the detail for them- 
selves ; and in this therefore we should meet 
with infinite and irreconcilable variety. 

Now this is precisely the point I am tending 
to; for the fact exactly accords with the above 
supposition ; the discordance and mutual con- 
tradictions of these witnesses being such as 
would alone throw a considerable shade of 
doubt over their testimony. It is not in minute 
circumstances alone that the discrepancy ap- 
pears, such as might be expected to appear in a 
narrative substantially true ; /but in very great 
and leading transactions, and such as are very 
intimately connected with the supposed hero. 
For instance, it is by no means agreed whether 
Buonaparte led in person the celebrated charge 
over the bridge of Lodi, (for celebrated it cer- 
tainly is, as well as the siege of Troy, whether 
either event ever really took place or no,) or 
was safe in the rear, while Augereau perform- 
ed the exploit. The same doubt hangs over 
the charge of the French cavalry at Waterloo. 
It is no less uncertain whether or no this 



24 HISTORIC DOUBTS RELATIVE TO 

strange personage poisoned in Egypt an hos- 
pital-full of his own soldiers ; and butchered in 
cold blood a garrison that had surrendered. 
But not to multiply instances; the battle of 
Borodino, which is represented as one of the 
greatest ever fought, is unequivocally claimed 
as a victory by both parties ; nor is the ques- 
tion decided at this day. We have official ac- 
counts on both sides, circumstantially detailed, 
in the names of supposed respectable persons, 
pfofessing to have been present on the spot, 
yet totally irreconcilable. Both these accounts 
may be false ; but since one of them rmist be 
false, that one (it is no matter which we sup- 
pose) proves incontrovertibly this important 
maxim ; that it is possible for a narrative — 
however circumstantial — however steadily main- 
tained — hoivever public f and however important 
the events it relates — however grave the autho- 
7ity on which it is published — to be nevertheless 
an entire fabrication ! 

Many of the events which have been recorded 
were probably believed much the*more readily 
and firmly, from the apparent caution and hesi- 
tation with which they were at first published, — 
the vehement contradiction in our papers of 
many pretended French accounts, — and the 
abuse lavished upon them for falsehood, exag- 



NAPOLEON BUONAPARTE. 25 

geration, and gasconade. But is it not possi- 
ble, — is it not indeed perfectly natural, — that 
the publishers even of known falsehood should 
assume this cautious demeanour, and this ab- 
horrence of exaggeration, in order the more 
easily to gain credit ? Is it not also very pos- 
sible, that those who actually believed what 
they published, may have suspected mere ex- 
aggeration, in stories which were entire jic- 
tions? Many men have that sort of simplicity, 
that they think themselves quite secure against 
being deceived, provided they believe only 
part of the story they hear ; when perhaps the 
whole is equally false. So that perhaps these 
sim^jle-hearted editors, who were so vehement 
against lying bulletins and so wary in an- 
nouncing their great news, were in the condi- 
tion of a clown, who thinks he has bought a 
great bargain of a Jew, because he has beat 
down the price perhaps from a guinea to a 
crown, for some article that is not really worth 
a groat. 

With respect to the character of Buona- 
parte, the dissonance is, if possible, still greater. 
According to some he was a wise, humane, 
magnanimous hero: others paint him as a 
monster of cruelty, meanness, and perfidy: 
some, even of those who are the most invete- 
3 



26 HISTORIC DOUBTS RELATIVE TO 

rate against him, speak very highly of his poli- 
tical and nnilitary ability ; others place him on 
the very verge of insanity. But allowing that 
all this may be the colouring of party preju- 
dice, (which surely is allowing a great deal,) 
there is one point to which such a solution 
will hardly apply : if there be any thing that 
can be clearly ascertained in history, one 
would think it must be the personal courage of 
a military man; yet here we are as much at 
a loss as ever ; at the very same times and on 
the same occasions, he is described by differ- 
ent writers^ as a man of undaunted intrepidity, 
and as an absolute poltroon. 

What then are we to beheve? if we are dis- 
posed to credit all that is told us, we must 
beheve in the existence not only of one, but 
of two or three Buonapartes ; if we admit no- 
thing but what is well authenticated, we shall 
be compelled to doubt the existence of any.* 

It appears, then, that those, on whose testi- 
mony the existence and actions of Buonaparte 
are generally believed, fail in all the most 

'* •* We entertain a suspicion conernin^ any matter of 
fact, when the witnesses cow^rac?/d each other; when they 
are of a suspicious character; when they have an interest 
in what they affirm," Hume's Essay on Miracles, p. 172, 
12mo., p. 176, 8vo., 1767; p. 113, 8vo., 1817. 



NAPOLEON BUONAPARTE, 27 

essential points on which the credibihty of wit- 
nesses depends: first, we have no assurance 
that they have access to correct information ; 
secondly, that they have an apparent interest 
in propagating falsehood; and, thirdly, they 
palpably contradict each other in the most 
important points. 

Another circumstance which throws addi- 
tional suspicion on these tales is, that the whig 
party, as they are called,— the warm advo- 
cates for liberty, and opposers of the encroach- 
ments of monarchical power,— have for some 
time past strenuously espoused the cause, and 
vindicated the character of Buonaparte, who 
is represented by all as having been, if not a 
tyrant, at least an absolute despot. One of 
the most forward in this cause is a gentleman, 
who once stood foremost in holding up this 
very man to public execration, — who first 
published, and long maintained against popu- 
lar incredulity, the accounts of his atrocities 
in Egypt. Now, that such a course should be 
adopted, for party purposes, by those who are 
aware that the whole story is a fiction, and the 
hero of it imaginary, seems not very incredi- 
ble : but if they believed in the real existence 
of this despot, I cannot conceive how [they 



2B HISTORIC DOUBTS RELATIVE TO 

could so forsake their principles as to advo- 
cate his cause, and eulogize his character. 

After all, it may be expected that many who 
perceive the force of these objections, will yet 
be loth to think it possible that they and the 
public at large can have been so long and so 
greatly imposed upon. And thus it is that the 
magnitude and boldness of a fraud become its 
best support: the millions who for so many 
ages have believed in'Mahomet or Brahma, lean 
as it were on each other for support; and not 
having vigour of mind enough boldly to throw 
off vulgar prejudices, and dare be wiser than 
the multitude, persuade themselves that what 
so many have acknowledged, must be true. But 
I call on those who boast their philosophical 
freedom of thought, and would fain tread in 
the steps of Hume and other inquirers of the 
like exalted and speculative genius, to follow 
up fairly and fully their own principles, and, 
throwing off the shackles of authority, to ex- 
amine carefully the evidence of whatever is 
proposed to them, before they admit its truth. 

That even in this enlightened age, as it is 
called, a whole nation may be egregiously 
imposed upon, even in matters which inti- 
mately concern them, may be proved (if it 
has not been already proved) by the following 



NAPOLEON BUONAPARTE. 29 

instance : it was stated in the newspapers, that, 
a month after the battle of Trafalgar, an En- 
glish officer, who had been a prisoner of war, 
and was exchanged, returned to this country 
from France, and, beginning to condole with 
his countrymen on the terrible defeat they had 
sustained, was infinitely astonished to learn 
that the battle of Trafalgar was a splendid 
victory: he had been assured, he said, that in 
that battle the English had been totally de- 
feated; and the French were fully and uni- 
versally persuaded that such was the fact. 
Now if this report of the belief of the French 
nation was not true, the British pubUc were 
completely imposed upon ; if it were true, then 
both nations were, at the same time, rejoicing 
in the event of the same battle, as a signal 
victory to themselves; and consequently one 
or other at least of these nations must have 
been the dupes of their government: for if the 
battle was never fought at all, or was not de- 
cisive on either side, in that case both parties 
were deceived. This instance, I conceive, is ab- 
solutely demonstrative of the point in question. 
" But what shall we say to the testimony of 
those many respectable persons who went to 
Plymouth on purpose, and saw Buonaparte 
with their own eyes ? must they not trust theiir 
3* 



30 HISTORIC DOUBTS RELATIVE TO 

senses?" I would not disparage either the 
eye-sight or the veracity of these gentlemen. 
I am ready to allow that they went to Ply- 
mouth for the purpose of seeing Buonaparte ; 
nay more, that they actually rowed out into 
the harbour in a boat, and came along side of 
a man-of war, on whose deck they saw a man 
in a cocked hat, who, they were told, was Buo- 
naparte. This is the utmost point to which 
their testimony goes; how they ascertained 
that this man in the cocked hat had gone 
through all the marvellous and romantic ad- 
ventures with which we have so long been 
amused, we are not told. Did they perceive in 
his physiognomy, his true name, and authentic 
history? Truly this evidence is such as coun- 
try people give one for a story of apparitions ; 
if you discover any signs of incredulity, they 
triumphantly show the very house which the 
ghost haunted, the identical dark corner where 
it used to vanish, and perhaps even the tomb- 
stone of the person whose death it foretold. 
Jack Cade's nobility was supported by the 
same irresistible kind of evidence : having as- 
serted that the eldest son of Edmund Morti- 
mer, Earl of March, was stolen by a beggar- 
woman, "became bricklayer when he came 
to age," and was the father of the supposed 



NAPOLEON BUONAPARTE. 31 

Jack Cade : — one of his companions confirms 
the story, by saying, " Sir, he made a chimney 
in my father's house, and the bricks are ahve 
at this day to testify it ; therefore deny it not." 

Much of the same kind is the testimony of 
our brave countrymen, who are ready to pro- 
duce the scars they received in fighting against 
this terrible Buonaparte. That they fought and 
were wounded, they may safely testify; and 
probably they no less firmly believe what they 
were told respecting the cause in which they 
fought : it would have been a high breach of 
disciphne to doubt it; and they, I conceive, 
are men better skilled in handhng a musket, 
than in sifting evidence, and detecting impos- 
ture. But I defy any one of them to come 
forward and declare, on his own knowledge^ 
what was the cause in which he fouarht, — 
under whose commands the opposed generals 
acted, — and whether the person who issued 
those commands did really perform the mighty 
achievements we are told of. 

Let those then who pretend to philosophical 
freedom of inquiry, — who scorn to rest their 
opinions on popular belief, and to sheher them- 
selves under the example of the unthinking 
multitude, consider carefully each one for him- 
self, what is the evidence proposed to himself 



32 HISTORIC DOUBTS RELATIVE TO 

in particular, for the existence of such a person 
as Napoleon Buonaparte: (I do not mean 
whether there ever was a person bearing that 
name, for that is a question of no consequence, 
but whether any such person ever performed 
all the wonderful things attributed to him ;) let 
him then weigh well the objections to that 
evidence, (of which I have given but a hasty 
and imperfect sketch,) and if he then finds it 
amount to any thing more than a probability, 
I have only to congratulate him on his easy 
ifaith. 

But the same testimony which would have 
great weight in establishing a thing intrinsi- 
cally probable, will lose part of this weight in 
proportion as the matter attested is improbable ; 
and if adduced in support of any thing that is at 
variance with uniform experience,* will be re- 
jected at once by all sound reasoners. Let us 
then consider what sort of a story it is that is 
proposed to our acceptance. How grossly 

* " That testimony itself derives all its force from ex- 
perience, seems very certain The first 

author we believe, who atated fairly the connexion be- 
tween the evidence of testimony and the evidence of ex- 
perience, was Hume, in his Essay on Miracles, a work 
. . . abounding- in maxims of great use in the conduct 
of life." Edinb. Review, Sept. 1814, p. 328. 



NAPOLEON BUONAPARTE. 33 

contradictory are the reports of the different 
authorities, I have already remarked: but 
consider, by itself, the story told by any one 
of them ; it carries an air of fiction and ro- 
mance on the very face of it; all the events 
are great, and splendid, and marvellous ;* 
great armies, great victories, great frosts, 
great reverses, " hairbreadth 'scapes," empires 
subverted in a few days ; every thing happen^ 
ing in defiance of political calculations, and in 
opposition to the experience of past times ; 
every thing upon that grand scale, so common 
in Epic Poetry, so rare in real life ; and thus 
calculated to strike the imagination of the 
vulgar, — and to remind the sober-thinking few 
of the Arabian Nights. Every event too has 
that roundness and completeness which is so 
characteristic of fiction ; nothing is done by 
halves ; we have complete victories — total over- 
throws, — entire subversion of empires, — per- 
fect re-establishments of them, — crowded upon 

* ** Suppose, for instance, that the fact which the tes- 
timony endeavours to establish partakes of the extraordi- 
nary and the marvellous ; in that case, the evidence re- 
sulting from the testimony receives a diminution, greater 
or less in proportion as the fact is more or less unusual." 
Hume's Essay on Mracles, p. 173, 12mo ; p. 176, 8vo, 
1767 ; p. 113, 8vo. 1817. 



34 HISTOKIC DOUBTS RELATIVE TO 

US in rapid succession. To enumerate the im- 
probabilities of each of the several parts of 
this history, would fill volumes; but they are 
so fresh in every one's memory, that there is 
no need of such a detail: let any judicious 
man, not ignorant of history and of human 
nature, revolve them in his mind, and consider 
how far they are conformable to experience,* 
our best and only sure guide. In vain will he 
seek in history for something similar to this 
wonderful Buonaparte ; " nought but himself 
can be his parallel." 

Will the conquests of Alexander be com- 
pared with his? Tliey were effected over a 
rabble of effeminate, undisciplined barbarians ; 
else his progress would hardly have been so 
rapid : witness his father Philip, who was much 
longer occupied in subduing the comparative- 
ly insignificant territory of the warlike and 
civilized Greeks, notwithstanding their being 
divided into numerous petty States, whose 
mutual jealousy enabled him to contend with 
them separately. But the Greeks had never 
made such progress in arts and arms as the 

* " The ultimate standard by which we determine all 
disputes that may arise is always derived from experience 
ajid observation." Hume's Essay on Miracles^ p. 172, 
12mo 5 p. 175, 8vo. 1767 ; p. 112, 8vo. 1817. 



NAPOLEON BUONAPARTE. 35 

great and powerful States of Europe, which 
Buonaparte is represented as so speedily over- 
powering. His empire has been compared to 
the Roman: mark the contrast; he gains in a 
few years, that dominion, or at least control, 
over Germany, wealthy, civilized, and power- 
ful, which the Romans in the plenitude of 
their power could not obtain, during a strug- 
gle of as many centuries, against the ignorant 
half-savages who then possessed it ! 

Another peculiar circumstance in the his- 
tory of this extraordinary personage is, that 
when it is found convenient to represent him 
as defeated, though he is by no means defeated 
by halves, but involved in much more sudden 
and total ruin than the personages of real his- 
tory usually meet with ; yet, if it is thought fit 
he should be restored, it is done as quickly and 
completely as if Merlin's rod had been em- 
ployed. He enters Russia with a prodigious 
army, which is totally ruined by an unprece- 
dented hard winter ; (every thing relating to 
this man is prodigious and unprexedented ;) yet 
in a few months we find him entrusted with 
another great army in Germany, which is also 
totally ruined at Leipsic ; making, inclusive of 
the Egyptian, the third great army thus totally 
lost: yet the French are so good-natured as 
to furnish him with another, sufficient to make 



36 HISTORIC DOUBTS RELATIVE TO 

a formidable stand in France ; he is however 
conquered, and 'presented with the sovereignty 
of Elba; (surely, by the bye, some more pro- 
bable way might have been found of disposing 
of him, till again wanted, than to place him 
thus on the very verge of his ancient domi- 
nions;) thence he returns to France, where 
he is received with open arms, and enabled to 
lose a fifth great army at Waterloo : yet so 
eager were these people to be a sixth time led 
to destruction, that it was found necessary to 
confine him in an island some thousand miles 
off, and to quarter foreign troops upon themf 
lest they should make an insurrection in his 
favour !* Does any one believe all this, and 
yet refuse to believe a miracle? Or rather, 
what is this but a miracle? Is it not a viola- 
tion of the laws of nature? for surely there 
are moral laws of nature as well as physical ; 
which, though more liable to exceptions in 
this or that particular case, are no less time as 

* ^H davfiaifa rto%%.d. 

Kat Tiov ii xal ^po-tuv ^piva^ 
'rnEP TON AAH0H AOrON 

'ElartaT-wyft fivOoi, Pmd. Olymp. 1 . 
[Indeed the miracles of those days were many. But 
fables cunningly devised sway the minds of men more 

THAN TBtrxa ITSELF.] 



NAPOLEON BUONAPARTE. 37 

general rules than the laws of matter, and 
therefore cannot be violated and contradicted 
beyond a certain point, without a miracle.* 

* This doctrine, though hardly needing- confirmation 
from authority, is supported by that of Hume; his eighth 
essay is, throughout, an argument for the doctrine of 
philosophical "necessity," drawn entirely from the ge- 
neral uniformity observable in the course of nat\u'e witii 
respect to the principles of human conduct, as well as 
those of the material universe; from which uniformity, 
he observes, it is that we are enabled, in both cases, to 
form our judgments by means of experience: "and if," 
says he, "v/e would explode any forgery in history, we 
cannot make use of a more convincing argument, than to 
prove that the actions ascribed to any person, are directly 

contrary to the course of nature 

The veracity of Quintus Curtius is as suspicious when 
he describes the supernatural courage of Alexander, by 
which he was hurried on singly to attack multitudes, as 
when he describes his supernatural force and activity, by 
which he was able to resist them. So readily and univer- 
sally do we acknowledge a uniformity in human motives 
and actions as well as in the operations of body." Eighth 
Essay, p. 131, 12mo.; p. 85, 8vo. 1817. 

Accordingly, in the tenth essay, his use of the term 
"miracle," after having called it " a transgression of a 
law of nature," plainly shows that he meant to include 
human nature: "no testimony," says he, "is sufficient 
to estabhsh a miracle, unless the testimony be of such a 
nature that its falsehood would be more miraculous than 
the fact which it endeavours to establish ;" the term " prf)- 
digy" also, which he all along employs as synonymous 
4 



'^S HISTORIC DOUBTS RELATIVE TO 

Nay, there is this additional circumstance 
which renders the contradiction of experience 
more glaring in this case than in that of the 

Vvith " miracle," is applied to testimony in the sume man- 
ner, immediately after: "In tlie foreg-oing* reasoning we 
Iiave supposed ; . . . . that the falsehood of that 
testimony would be a kind of prodigfy." Now, had he 
meant to confine the meaning- of "miracle," and "pro- 
digy," to a violation of the laws of matter, tiie epitiiet 
" rnhnailnis,'' npplied, even thus hypothetically, to false 
tesfimnny, would be as unmeaning- as the epithets "green," 
or "square;" the only possible sense in which we can ap- 
ply to it, even in imagination, the term "miraculous" is 
tiuit of "highly improbable," — "contrary to those laws 
of nature which respect human conduct:" and in this 
sense accordingly he uses the word in the \ery next sen- 
tence: "When any one tells me that he saw a dead man re- 
stored to life, I immediately consider with myself whether 
it be Ytiove probable Xh'AX. this person should either deceive 
or be deceived, or that the fact which he relates should 
really have happened. 1 weigh the one miracle against 
the other." Hume^s Essay on Miracles, p. 176, 177, 1 2mo. ; 
p. 182, 8vo., 1767; p. 115, Bvo., 1817. 

See also a passage above quoted from the same essay, 
where he speaks of " the miraculous accounts of travel- 
lers;" evidently using the word in this sense. Perhaps 
it was superfluous to cite authority for applying the term 
"miracle" to whatever is highly '* improbable;" but it 
is important to the students of Hume, to be fully aware 
that he uses those two expressions as synonymous; since 
otherwise they would mistake the meaning of that pas- 
sage which he justly calls "a general maxim worthy of 
our attention." 



NAPOLEON BUOINAPARTE, 39 

miraculous histories which ingenious skeptics 
have held up to contempt : all the advocates 
of miracles admit that they are rare exceptions 
to the general course of nature ; but contend 
that they must needs be so, on account of the 
rarity of those extraordinary occasions which 
are the reason of their being performed : a 
Miracle, they say, does not happen every day, 
because a Revelation is not given every day. 
It would be foreign to the present purpose to 
seek for arguments against this answer; I leave 
it to those who are engaged in the controversy, 
to find a reply to it ; but my present object is, 
to point out that this solution does not at all 
apply in the present case. Where is the pecu= 
liarity of the occasion ? What sufficient reason 
is there for a series of events occurring in the 
eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, which 
never took place before ? Was Europe at that 
period peculiarly weak, and in a state of bar- 
barism, that one man could achieve such con- 
quests, and acquire such a vast empire 1 On 
the contrary, she was flourishing in the height 
of strength and civilization. Can the perse- 
vering attachment and blind devotedness of 
the French to this man, be accounted for by 
his being the descendant of a long line of 
kings, whose race was hallowed by hereditary 



40 HISTORIC DOUBTS RELATIVE TO 

veneration / No ; we are told he was a low- 
born usurper, and not even a Frenchman ! Is 
it that he was a good and kind sovereign 1 He 
is represented not only as an in:iperious and 
merciless despot, but as most w^antonly care- 
less of the lives of his soldiers. Could the 
French army and people have failed to hear 
from the wretched survivors of his supposed 
Russian expedition, how they had left the 
corpses of above 100,000 of their comrades 
bleaching on the snow-drifts of that dismal 
country, whither his mad ambition had con- 
ducted them, and where his selfish cowardice 
had deserted them? Wherever we turn to 
seek lor circumstances that may help to ac- 
count for the events of this incredible story, 
we only meet with such as aggravate its im- 
probability.* Had it been told of some distant 
country, at a remote period, we could not 
have been told what peculiar circumstances 
there might have been to render probable 

* " Events may be so extraordinary that they can hardly 
be established by testimony. We would not g-ive credit 
to a man who would affirm that he saw an hundred dice 
thrown into the air, and that they all fell on the same 
faces." Edinh. Review, Sept. 1814, p. 327. 

Let it be observed, that the instance here given ia 
miraculous in no other sense but that of being highly im~ 
probable. 



NAPOLEON BUONAPARTE. 41 

what seems to us most strange ; and yet in 
that case every philosophical skeptic ; every 
free-thinking speculator, would instantly have 
rejected such a history, as utterly unworthy 
of credit. What, for instance, would the great 
Hume, or any of the philosophers of his school 
have said, if they had found in the antique 
records of any nation such a passage as this : 
" There was a certain man of Corsica, whose 
name was Napoleon, and he was one of the 
chief captains of the host of the French ; and 
he gathered together an army, and went and 
fought against Egypt ; but when the king of 
Britain heard thereof, he sent ships of war and 
valiant men to fight against the French in 
Egypt. So they warred against them, and 
prevailed, and strengthened the hands of the 
rulers of the land against the French, and 
drave away Napoleon from before the city of 
Acre. Then Napoleon left the captains and 
the army that were in Egypt, and fled, and 
returned back to France. So the French peo- 
ple took Napoleon, and made him ruler over 
them, and he became exceeding great, inso- 
much that there was none like him of all that 
had ruled over France before." 

What, I say, would Hume have thought of 
this, especially if he had been told that it was 
4# 



42 HISTORIC DOUBTS llELATIVE TO 

at this day generally credited ? Would he not 
have confessed that he had been mistaken in 
supposing there was a peculiarly blind credu- 
lity and prejudice in favour of every thing that 
is accounted sacred;^' for that, since even pro- 
fessed skeptics swallow implicitly such a story 
as this, it appears there must be a still blinder 
prejudice in favour of every thing that is not 
accounted sacred ? 

Suppose, again, we found in this history 
such passages as the following: "And it came 
to pass after these things that Napoleon streng- 
thened himself, and gathered together another 
host instead of that which he had lost, and 
went and warred against the Prussians, and 
the Russians, and the Austrians, and all the 
rulers of the north country, which were con- 
federate against him. And the ruler of Sweden 
also, which was a Frenchman, warred against 
Napoleon. So they went forth, and fought 
against the French in the plain of Leipsic. 
And the French were discomfited before their 
enemies, and fled, and came to the rivers 

* "If the spirit of relig-ion join itself to the love of 
wonder, there is an end of common sense; and human 
testimony in these circumstances loses all pretensions to 
authority." Hume's Essay on Miracles, p. 179, 12mo.; 
p. 185, 8vo., 1767; p. 117, 8vo., 1817. 



NAPOLEON BUONAPARTE, 43 

which are behind Leipsicj and essayed to pass 
over, that ihey might escape out of the hand 
of their enemies ; but they could not ; for Na- 
poleon had broken down the bridges ; so the 
people of the north countries came upon them, 
and smote them with a very grievous slaugh- 
ter." 



" Then the ruler of Austria and all the ru- 
lers of the north countries sent messengers 
unto Napoleon to speak peaceably unto him, 
saying, Why should there be war between us 
any more? Now Napoleon had put away 
his wife, and taken the daughter of the ruler 
of Austria to wife. So all the counsellers of 
Napoleon came and stood before him, and 
said, Behold now these kings are merciful 
kings; do even as they say unto thee; know- 
est thou not yet that France is destroyed 1 
But he spake roughly unto his counsellors, 
and drave them out from his presence, neither 
would he hearken unto their voice. And 
when all the kings saw^ that, they warred 
against France, and smote it with the edge of 
the sword, and came near to Paris, which is 
the royal city, to take it ; so the men of Paris 
went out, and delivered up the city to them. 
Then those kings spake kindly unto the men 



44 HISTORIC DOUBTS KELA.TIVE TO 

of Paris, saying, Be of good cheer, there shall 
no harm happen unto you. Then were the 
men of Paris glad, and said. Napoleon is a 
tyrant; he shall no more rule over us: also all 
the princes, the judges, the counsellors, and 
the captains, whom Napoleon had raised up, 
even from the lowest of the people, sent unto 
Lewis, the brother of King Lewis, whom they 
had slain, and made him king over France." 

"And when Napoleon saw that the kingdom 
was departed from him, he said unto the 
rulers which came against him. Let me, I 
pray you, give the kingdom unto my son : 
but they would not hearken unto him. Then 
he spake yet again, saying, Let me, I pray 
you, go and live in the island of Elba, which 
is over against Italy, nigh unto the coast of 
France ; and ye shall give me an allowance 
for me and my household, and the land of 
Elba also for a possession. So they made 
him ruler of Elba." 



" In those days the Pope returned unto his 
own land. Now the French, and divers other 
nations of Europe are servants of the Pope, 
and hold him in reverence ; but he is an 



NAPOLEON BUONAPARTE. 45 

abomiuatioii unto the Britons, and to the Prus- 
sians, and to the Russians, and to the Swedes. 
Howbeit the French had taken away all his 
lands, and robbed him of all that he had, and 
carried him away captive into France. But 
when the Britons, and the Prussians, and the 
Russians, and the Swedes, and tlie rest of the 
nations that were confederate against France, 
came thither, they caused the French to set 
the Pope at liberty, and to restore all his 
goods that they had taken ; likewise they gave 
iiim back all his possessions; and he went 
home in peace, and ruled over his own "city 
as in times past." 

"And it came to pass when Napoleon had 
not yet been a full year at Elba, that he said 
unto his men of war which clave unto him, 
Go to, let us go back to France, and fight 
against King Lewis, and thrust him out from 
being king. So he departed, he and 600 men 
with him that drew the sw^ord, and warred 
against King Lewis. Then all the men of 
Belial gathered themselves together, and said, 
God save Napoleon. And when Lewis saw 
that, he fled, and gat him into the land of 
Batavia ; and Napoleon ruled over France." 
&c., &c., &c. 



46 HISTORIC DOUBTS RELATIVE TO 

Now if a free-thinking philosopher — one of 
those who advocate the cause of unbiassed 
reason, and despised pretended revelations — 
were to meet with such a tissue of absurdities 
as this, in an old Jewish record, would he not 
reject it at once as too palpable an imposture* 
to deserve even any inquiry into its evidence ? 
Is that credible then of the civilized Europeans 
now, which could not, if reported of the semi- 
barbarous Jews 3000 years ago, be estabhshed 
by any testimony? Will it be answered, that 
"there is nothing supernatural in all this?" 
Why is it, then, that you object to what is 
supernatural — that you reject every account 
of miracles — if not because they are imp?'oba- 
ble? Surely then a story equally or still more 
improbable, is not to be implicitly received, 
merely on the ground that it is not miraculous: 
though in fact, as I have already (in note p. 37,) 

* " I desire any one to lay his hand upon his heart, and 
after serious consideration declare, whether he thinks that 
the falsehood of such a book, supported by such testi- 
mony, would be more extraordinary and miraculous than 
all the miracles it relates." Hume-s Essay on Miracles, 
p. 200, 12mo.; p. 206, 8vo., 1767^ p. 131, 8vo., 1817. 

Let it be borne in mind, that Hume (as I have above 
remarked) continually employs the terms "miracle" and 
" prodigy" to signify any thing that is highly improbable 
and extraordinary. 



NAPOLEON RUONArAKTE, 47 

shown from Hume's authority, it really is mi- 
raculous. The opposition to experience has 
been proved to be as complete in this case, as 
in what are commonly called miracles; and 
the reasons assigned for that contrariety by 
the defenders of them, cannot be pleaded in the 
present instance. If then philosophers, who 
reject every wonderful story that is maintain- 
ed by priests, are yet found ready to believe 
evenj thing else, however improbable, they will 
surely lay themselves open to the accusation 
brought against them, of being unduly preju- 
diced against whatever relates to religion. 

There is one more circumstance which I 
cannot forbear mentioning, because it so much 
adds to the air of fiction which pervades every 
part of this marvellous tale ; and that is, the 
nationality of it.* 

Buonaparte prevailed over all the hostile 
states in turn, except England; in the zenith 
of his power, his fleets were swept Irom the 
sea', hy England; his troops always defeat an 
equal, and frequently even a superior number 

* "Tliewise lend a veiy academic faith to every re- 
port wliich favours the passion of the reporter, whether 
it maji^nifies his country, his family, or himself." Hume's 
E'Sffi/ on jWraelef, p. 144, 12mo., p. 200, 8vo., 1767; 
p. 136, 8vo,, 1817. 



48 HISTORIC DOUBTS RELATIVE TO 

of those of any other nation except the English; 
and with them it is just the reverse ; twice, and 
twice only, he is personally engaged against 
an English commander, and both times he is 
totally defeated; at Acre and at Waterloo; 
and, to crown all, England finally crushes this 
tremendous power, which has so long kept 
the continent in subjection or in alarm, and 
to the English he surrenders himself prisoner. 
Thoroughly national to be sure ! Jt may be 
all very true; but 1 would only ask, /fa story 
had been fabricated for the express purpose 
of amusing the English nation, could it have 
been contrived more ingeniously? It would do 
admirably for an epic poem ; and indeed bears 
a considerable resemblance to the Ihad and 
the JEneid; in which Achilles and the Greeks, 
iEneas and the Trojans, (the ancestors of the 
Romans,) are so studiously held up to admira- 
tion. Buonaparte's exploits seem magnified in 
order to enhance the glory of his conquerors ; 
just as Hector is allowed to triumph during 
the absence of Achilles, merely to give addi- 
tional splendour to his overthrow by the arm 
of that invincible hero. Would not this cir- 
cumstance alone render a history rather sus- 
picious in the eyes of an acute critic, even if 
it were not filled with such gross improbabili- 



NAPOLEON BUONAPARTE. 49 

ties; and induce him to suspend his judgment, 
till very satisfactory evidence (far stronger 
than can be found in this case) should be pro- 
duced? 

Is it then too much to demand of the wary 
academic* a suspension of judgment as to 
the " life and adventures of Napoleon Buona- 
parte'?" 1 do not pretend to decide positively 
that there is not, nor ever was, any such per- 
son ; but merely to propose it as a doubtful 
point, and one the more deserving of careful 
investigation, from the very circumstance of 
its having hitherto been admitted without in- 
quiry. Far less would I undertake to decide 
what is, or has been, the real state of affairs: 
he who points out the improbabihty of the cur- 
rent story, is not bound to suggest an hypo- 
thesis of his own y\ though it may safely be 
affirmed, that it would be hard to invent any, 
more improbable than the received one. One 



* "Nothing- can be more contrary than such a philoso- 
phy" (the academic or skeptical) " to the supine indo- 
lence of the mind, its rash arrogance, its lofty pretensions, 
and its superstitious credulity." Fifth Esmy, p> 68, ISmo.j 
p. 41, 8vo., 1817. 

f See Hume*s Essay on Miracles, p. 189, 191, 195, 
12rao.; p. 193, 197, 201, 202, Svo., 1767; p. 124, 125, 126, 
Svo., 1817. 

5 



50 HISTORIC DOUBTS RELATIVE TO 

may surely be allowed to hesitate in admitting 
the stories which the ancient poets tell, of earth- 
quakes and volcanic eruptions being caused by 
imprisoned giants, without being called upon 
satisfactorily to account for those phenomena. 
Amidst the defect of valid evidence under 
which, as I have already shown, we labour in 
the present instance, it is hardly possible to 
offer more than here and there a probable 
conjecture; or to pronounce how much may 
be true, and how much fictitious, in the ac- 
counts presented to us. For it is to be ob- 
served that this case is much mm^e open to 
skeptical doubts even than some miraculous 
histories ; for some of them are of such a 
nature that you cannot consistently admit a 
part and reject the rest; but are bound, if you 
are satisfied as to the reality of any one mira= 
cle, to embrace the whole system ; so that it 
is necessary for the skeptic to impeach the 
evidence of all of them, separately, and collec- 
tively: whereas here, each single point requires 
to be established separately, since no one of 
them authenticates the rest. Supposing there 
be a state-prisoner at St. Helena, (which, by 
the way, it is acknowledged many of the 
French disbelieve,) how do we know who he 
is, or why he is confined there? There have 



NAPOLEON BUCK AP ARTE « 61 

been state-prisoners before now, who were 
never guilty of subjugating half Europe, and 
whose offences have been very imperfectly 
ascertained. Admitting that there have been 
bloody wars going on for several years past, 
which is highly probable, it does not follow 
that the events of those wars were such as 
we have been told ; — that Buonaparte was the 
author and conductor of them ; — or that such a 
person ever existed. What disturbances may 
have taken place in the government of the 
French people, we, and even nineteen-twen- 
tieths of them, have no means of learning but 
from imperfect hear-say evidence: but that 
there have been numerous bloody wars with 
France under the dominion of the Bourhonsy 
we are well assured: and we are now told 
that France is governed by a Bourbon king, 
of the name of Lewis, who professes to be in 
the twenty-third year of his reign. Let every 
one conjecture for himself. I am far from 
pretending to decide who may have been the 
governor or governors of the French nation, 
and the leaders of their armies, for several 
years past. Certain it is, that when men are 
indulging their incKnation for the marvellous, 
they always show a strong propensity to accu- 
mulate upon one individual (real or imagi- 



52 HISTORIC DOUBTS RELATIVE TO 

liary) the exploits of many; besides multiply- 
ing and exaggerating these exploits a thou- 
sand-fold. Thus, the expounders of the an- 
cient mythology tell us there were several 
persons of the name of Hercules, (either ori- 
ginally bearing that appellation, or having it 
applied to them as an honour,) whose collec- 
tive feats, after being dressed up in a suffi- 
ciently marvellous garb, were attributed to a 
single hero. It is not just possible, that during 
the rage for words of Greek derivation, the 
title of " Napoleon," (NaTto^siov,) which signifies 
" Lion of the forest," may have been confer- 
red by the popular voice on more than one 
favourite general, distinguished for irresistible 
valour? Is it not also possible that "Buo- 
naparte" may have been originally a sort 
of cant term applied to the " good (i. e. the 
bravest or most patriotic) part" of the French 
army, collectively ; and have been afterwards 
mistaken for the proper name of an individual ? 
I do not profess to support this conjecture ; but 
it is certain that such mistakes may and do 
occur. Some critics have supposed that the 
Athenians imagined Anastasis (" Resurrec- 
tion") to be a new goddess, in whose cause 
Paul was preaching. Would it have been 
thought any thing incredible if we had been 



NAPOLEON BUONAPARTEo 53 

told that the ancient Persians, who had no 
idea of any but a nnonarchical government, 
had supposed Aristocratia to be a queen of 
Sparta ? But we need not confine ourselves to 
hypothetical cases ; it is positively stated that 
the Hindoos at this day believe " the honour- 
able East India Company" to be a venerable 
old lady of high dignity, residing in this coun- 
try. The Germans of the present day derive 
their name from a similar mistake ; the first 
tribe of them who invaded Gaul* assumed the 
honourable title of " Ger-man,'' which signifies 
"warrior;" (the words " war" and "guerre," 
as well as " man," which remains in our lan- 
guage unaltered, are evidently derived from 

* Germaniae vocabulum recens et nuper additunij quo- 
niam, qui primi Rhenum transgressi Gallos expiilerint, ac 
nunc Tungri, tunc Germani vocati sint: ita nationis nomen 
in nomen gentis evaluisse paullatim, ut omnes, primum a 
victore ob metum, mox a seipsis invento nomine, Ger- 
mani vocarentur. Tacitus de Mor. Germ. 

The word Germany is held to be of modern addition. 
In support of this hypothesis, they tell us that the people, 
who first passed the Rhine, and took possession of a can- 
ton in Gaul, though known at present by the name of 
Tungrians, were, in that expedition, called Germans, and 
thence the title assumed by a band of emigrants in order 
to spread a general term in their progress, extended itself 
by degrees, and became, in time, the appellation of a 
whole people. [Murphy.] 

5* 



54 HISTORIC DOUBTS KELATIVE TO 

the Teutonic,) and the Gauls applied this as 
a name, to the whole race. 

However, I merely throw out these conjec- 
tures without by any means contending that 
more plausible ones might not be suggested. 
But whatever supposition we adopt, or whether 
we adopt any, the objections to the common- 
ly-received accounts will remain in their full 
force, and imperiously demand the attention 
of the candid skeptic. 

I call upon those therefore who profess 
themselves advocates of free inquiry, — who 
disdain to be carried along with the stream of 
popular opinion, — and who will listen to no 
testimony that runs counter to experience, — 
to follow up their own principles fairly and 
consistently. Let the same mode of argument 
be adopted in all cases alike ; and then it can 
no longer be attributed to hostile prejudice, 
but to enlarged and philosophical views. If 
they have already rejected some histories, on 
the ground of their being strange and marvel- 
lous, — of their relating facts, unprecedented, 
and at variance with the established course of 
nature,— let them not give credit to another 
history which lies open to the very same ob- 
jections, — the extraordinary and romantic tale 
w^e have been just considering. If they have 



KAPOLEOJN" BUONAPARTE. 55 

discredited the testimony of witnesses, who 
are said at least to have been disinterested, 
and to have braved persecutions and death in 
support of their assertions, — can these philoso- 
phers consistently listen to and believe the tes- 
timony of those w^io avowedly get inoney by 
the tales they publish, and who do not even 
pretend that they incur any serious risk in 
case of being detected in a falsehood? If in 
other cases they have refused to listen to an 
account which has passed through many in- 
termediate hands before it reaches them, and 
which is defended by those who have an in- 
terest in maintaining it; let them consider 
through how many, and what very suspicious 
hands, iliis story has arrived to them, without 
the possibility (as I have shown) of tracing it 
back to any decidedly authentic source, after 
all ;* and likewise how strong an interest, in 
every way, those who have hitherto imposed 
on them, have, in keeping up the imposture. 
Let them, in short, show themselves as ready 
to detect the cheats, and despise the fables, of 
politicians, as of priests. 

But if they are still wedded to the popular 

* For let it not be forgotten, that these writers, ilitm- 
selves, refer to no better authority than that of an un- 
named and unknown foreign correspondent. 



56 HISTORIC DOUBTS, &C. 

belief in this point, let thenn be consistent 
enough to admit the same evidence in other 
cases, which they yield to, in this. If after all 
that has been said, they cannot bring them- 
selves to doubt of the existence of Napoleon 
Buonaparte, they must at least acknowledge 
that they do not apply to that question, the 
same plan of reasoning which they have made 
use of in others; and they are consequently 
bound in reason and in honesty to renounce it 
altogether. 



POSTSCEIPT 

TO THE THIRD EDITION, 



It may seem arrogant for an obscure and 
nameless individual to claim the glory of hav- 
ing put to death the most formidable of all 
recorded heroes; but a shadowy champion 
may be overthrow^n by a shadowy antagonist. 
Many a terrific spectre has been laid by the 
beams of a half-penny candle. And if I have 
succeeded in making out, in the foregoing 
pages, a probable case of suspicion, it must, I 
think, be admitted, that there is some ground 
for my present boast, of having killed Napo- 
leon Buonaparte. 

Let but the circumstances of the case be 
considered : This mighty Emperor, who had 
been so long the bug- bear of the civilized 
world, after having obtained successes and 
undergone reverses, such as never befell any 
(other at least) real potentate, was at length 
sentenced to confinement in the remote inland 
of St. Helena ; a measure which many per- 



58 POSTSCRIPT TO 

sons wondered at, and many objected to, on 
various grounds; not unreasonably, supposing 
the illustrious exile to be a real person: but 
on the supposition of his being only a man of 
straw, the situation was exceedingly favour- 
able for keeping him out of the way of imper- 
tinent curiosity, when not wanted, and for 
making him the foundation of any new plots 
that there might be occasion to conjure up. 

About this juncture it was that the public 
attention was first invited by these pages, to 
the question as to the real existence of Napo- 
leon Buonaparte. They excited, it may be 
fairly supposed, along with much surprise and 
much censure, some degree of doubt, and, 
probably, of consequent inquiry. No fresh 
evidence, as far as I can learn, of the truth of 
the disputed points, was brought forward to 
dispel these doubts. We heard, however, of 
the most jealous precautions being used to 
prevent any intercourse between the formida- 
ble prisoner, and any stranger, who, from 
motives of curiosity, might wish to visit him. 
The " man in the iron mask" could hardly 
have been more rigorously secluded : and we 
also heard various contradictory reports of 
conversations between him and the few who 
were allowed access to him : the falsehood 



THE THIRD EDITION. 59 

and inconsislenc)?- of most of these reports 
being proved in contemporary publications. 

At length, just about the time when the pub- 
lic skepticism respecting this extraordinary 
personage might be supposed to have risen to 
an alarming height, it was announced to us 
that he was dead ! A stop was thus put, most 
opportunely, to all troublesome inquiries. I 
do not undertake to deny that such a person 
did live and die. That he was, and that he 
did, every tiling that is reported, we cannot 
believe, unless we consent to admit contradic- 
tory statements ; but many of the events re- 
corded, however marvellous, are certainly not 
physically impossible. But I would only en- 
treat the candid reader to reflect what might 
naturally be expected, on the supposition of 
the surmises contained in the present work 
being well-founded. Supposing the whole of 
the tale I have been considering to have been 
a fabrication, what would be the natural result 
of such an attempt to excite inquiry into its 
truth? Evidently the shortest and most efl^ec- 
tual mode of eluding detection would be to kill 
the phantom, and so get rid of him at once. 
A ready and decisive answer would thus be 
provided to any one in whom the foregoing 
arguments might have excited suspicions^ 



60 POSTSCRIPT TO THE THIRD EDITION. 

" Sir, there can be no doubt such a } 
existed, and performed what is rela*/ 
him ; and if you will just take a voyage 
Helena, you may see with your own e 
not him indeed, for he is no longer liv 
but his tovih: and what evidence woul 
have that is more decisive?" 

So much for his Death: as for his Li 
is just published by an eminent writer : b 
which, the shops will supply us with 
dance of busts and prints of this great 
all strikina; likenesses— of one another, 
most incredulous must be satisfied with 
" Stat magni NOMINIS umbra'" 

KONX OMPi^ 



Timi 



m 



U 



